“Nice tits.”

“Wha… what?” Rebecca blinked a few times, uncertain about – and perhaps not wanting to believe – what she’d just heard as soon as she caught up to Matthew.

“Nice tits,” he repeated, as he stopped walking to turn and stare directly at her chest. “They’re nice and round. Bounce nicely when you run. Seem to fill that shirt of yours up nicely. Will you show them to me?”

Blushing, Rebecca slowly crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I don’t think so,” she answered, in a coldly shocked way.

“Even if I were to save your life?” Matthew pressed. “Would you show them to me then?”

“I… I don’t know. I doubt it.” Glancing nervously up and down the hall, Rebecca had to assure herself that she was safe. Mrs. Patterson wouldn’t have asked her to escort him if he was really dangerous – she wasn’t that type of teacher. All that talk about murder, rape, and death was just talk. Right?

Shrugging, Matthew started back down the hall to the steps leading downstairs. Hesitantly, Rebecca glanced back and forth down the hallway once again, before she finally followed after, keeping several steps between both of them.

At the small landing halfway down the steps, Matthew suddenly stopped and turned to face her again. Reaching out a hand, he gently took hold of hers and tugged Rebecca out to the center of the landing. “Stay still for a moment,” he ordered.

“Wha… what?” Trying to swallow down the lump that was forming in the back of her throat, Rebecca felt her lips going dry as Matthew slowly made a circle around her and looked her up and down.

“Nice curve to your ass. It seems cushiony enough,” Matthew muttered to himself. “Not too much fat on your bones. Do you play sports,” he asked suddenly.

“No.. not really.” Never in all her life had Rebecca felt so objectified. It was almost as if she was nothing more than a piece of meat sitting in a butcher’s shop, waiting inspection. Part of her felt like beating Matthew half to death with the hall pass; part of her felt like screaming and running for the police.

“Is your hair naturally blond,” Matthew asked, as he reached out a hand to tug one of the long stands up to feel. Jerking back, Rebecca smacked his arm away. “It’s real, jackass! Just what’s your problem, anyway?”

“Time. Time is the problem,” Matthew answered slowly, as he eased back and sat down at the bottom of the steps going back up from the landing to the third floor. “There’s only twenty-two minutes and six seconds now before Game On,” he muttered, sounding disappointed. “I was hoping to have more time so I could find her first, but I didn’t see her this morning. I don’t know where she’s at.”

“She? She who?” Rebecca asked, sounding confused, while happy for the distance back between them once again. Looking down at herself, she tried to imagine what Matthew might have saw while staring at her like he had been. Young, at only sixteen, Rebecca was already a fully grown woman. She was one of the first in her class to have her period, and one of the first to have her breasts grow out. Several of the other girls laughed and joked about how large her chest had grown – her bra was a D-cup now – but it was one of those areas she was always self-conscious about. Her hips seemed a little too round, too flabby for her liking, and in her mind she was at least ten pounds too fat.

Shaking her head slowly, Rebecca slowly chewed on the bottom of her lip as she tried to access herself. There wasn’t anything special about the clothes she’d worn today to catch his attention – her top was a simple blue button up shirt and he skirt was colored in a rainbow swirl pattern, and hung loosely almost down to her ankles. Her shoes were a plain pair of white tennis shoes, and her hung was pulled back into a simple ponytail, and its golden strands hung loosely halfway down her back. She really couldn’t see any reason why Matthew might have taken such an interest in her so quickly.

“So do you? Dammit! Do you!” Matthew suddenly raising his voice several levels suddenly made her ficus her attention back to him. “Do… Do I what?” Rebecca stammered, and blushed slightly at how much she’d distracted herself. She’d never been in any situation similar to what she was in now before, and her mind was having trouble staying focused and knowing what to deal with first.

“Do you know where she’s at?” Matthew asked again, sounding exasperated.

“Who?”, Rebecca asked quietly, feeling once again like a mouse again caught under the unwavering glare of a hungry hawk.

“Kristy,” Matthew repeated slowly. “Kristy Turman. She’s a year behind us in school, I think. Do you know her? Long, black hair. Nice perky tits. She’s a cheerleader,” Matthew explained.

“I know her,” Rebecca reassured him, frowning slightly. “Well, I know of her. She’s the junior class president.”

“That’s her,” Matthew nodded. “Do you know which class she’s in this morning? We only have a little over nineteen minutes now.”

“I’m… I’m not sure,” Rebecca answered, getting a little unnerved by the intense gaze Matthew had focused on her once again. “I think I’ve seen her down around the gym early in the morning. She might have P.E. for her first class of the day.”

“Dammit!” Slamming his fist into the wall beside him, Matthew paced back and forth a few times and then grabbed Rebecca by the shoulders. “Solo play sucks,” he told her, staring intently into her eyes, “and if she’s in gym, she could be anywhere by now – on the field, out at the tennis courts, in the gym.” Shaking his head from side to side, Matthew looked almost as if he had tears in the corner of his eyes. “I’ve always liked her. I wanted to save her, but there’s just not enough time now. We need to get somewhere where we can be safe for a while. It’s going to be hell in another seventeen minutes!”

Stomping over in front of her, Matthew put a hand on either side of Rebecca’s face and stared directly into her eyes. “Tell me now,” he demanded, “if I save you, will be become my mentee?”

Rebecca asked, “Mentee?”, completely confused. “What’s a mentee?”

“Dammit!” Stomping back over, Matthew slammed his fist back against the wall once again. “There’s no time to explain. We have fifteen minutes to get somewhere to ride out the wave and this isn’t the spot for that.” Taking a deep breath, he slowly ran his hand through his hair. “Let’s keep it as simple as possible for now,” he said, slowly. “If there was a zombie virus, like we see all the time on TV now, and someone could save you and teach you how to survive, would you follow them?”

“Well… Yeah, someone would have to be a fool not to,” Rebecca answered, while staring at Matthew and slightly chewing on her bottom lip.

“Would you listen to them and do what they said,” Matthew asked once again, staring directly into her eyes.

“I… I guess.” Blinking a few times, Rebecca tried to keep her voice steady and her nerves under control. She didn’t like the intensity that Matthew was glaring at her with, but at the same time she didn’t want to be ‘that idiot girl who cried wolf when the idiot boy forgot to take his medicine’. “If there was a zombie virus, and someone could save me and teach me how to live through it, I’d listen to that person and do what they wanted. I don’t want to end up dead, eaten, or turned into a zombie, any more than anyone else would, I don’t think. If someone could keep me alive and safe, I’d definitely listen to them and do what I needed to, to live.”

“Fine then.” Shoving his hand deep into his jacket pocket, Matthew suddenly pulled out half a pair of scissors. Moving forward with a dash, he grabbed Rebecca by the arm and then stabbed the blade towards her face to stop inches from her eye. “I’m going to save you,” he assured her menacingly, “whether you want me to or not. There’s simply no more time left.

“If you scream,” Matthew assured her, “I’ll gouge out your eyes, leave you blind on the floor, and let you suffer whatever damnation will come your way in the next few minutes. Do you understand?”

“I… I understand…” Rebecca couldn’t quit staring at the scissor blade hovering inches in front of her face. Mrs. P was wrong! Matthew was completely off his rocker and was bat-shit crazy. If she wasn’t careful and lucky, Rebecca just knew she was going to end up blinded or maimed for life. “I.. I won’t scream,” she assured him, as she tried to tell herself that it wouldn’t be but a few more minutes before Mrs. P realized she was taking longer than expected and then send someone to come check on the two of them. Rebecca assured herself that she just had to endure for a few minutes more and try and not get herself hurt, and then someone would find her and save her.

“Good,” Matthew muttered, as he tugged her forward and started back up the stairs. “Walk calmly and slowly down the hallway and unlock the bathroom. It’s not my first choice on where I want to be when the wave hits, but it’ll have to do. At least we can lock that door behind us, and that’s got to be worth something. If you try to run, scream, or do anything funny, I’ll gut you like a fish,” he assured her.

“I’m not going to run, scream, or do anything funny,” Rebecca assured him, swallowing down the dry lump that was forming in the back of her throat as she allowed herself to slowly be led back up and stairs and down the hall past her classroom.

“Ten minutes left,” Matthew muttered softly to himself. “Only ten damn minutes left. Why the hell wouldn’t anyone have believed me?”

Too scared to answer, Rebecca simply focused on placing one foot in front of another as she continued to head down and hall and to the bathrooms.